Thursday, September 17, 2009

2009 Sep 15 - 16 - US 50

2009 September 15 - 16 - US 50, NV - The Loneliest Highway

{Click on any photo to view the full size image}

Okay. Lil Doc has spent a bit over two weeks with her new grandchild and is heading back home to MA. So I will accompany her from Sacramento, CA to Wendover, NV via Hwy 50 in Nevada the Loneliest Road in America.

Lil Doc has bribed me by promising to pay for all of my food on this day and a half Ride.

Our first lunch stop is a Wendy's inside a Pilot Travel Center in West Fernley, NV.
Lil Doc changing riding gear for warmer weather at Fernley. Note the converted bus hauling an old Navy Shore Patrol station wagon at the pump.

We had to wait out a fairly long Funeral Procession heading to the Veteran's Cemetery in Fernley. And I lose even more time by trying to find a short cut to Alt Hwy 50, but find a Dead End instead. :-(

We do make it to Hwy 50 and a few miles east of Fallon, NV we pull off the road at a burned down building. This is our first photo op.

Standing in the middle of Hwy 50.


I got my camera out of my jacket and managed to hit the power on button against my clutch lever to turn it on. And I got a few pictures of Lil Doc blasting along Hwy 50 in front of me.





Lil Doc's route for Tuesday, Sep 15, 2009:


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The Owl Club Casino and Restaurant is the busiest place in Eureka, NV.
The restaurant is open from 5:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

We are staying directly across the street from the Owl Club at the Sundown Lodge.
Note Marge's personalized license plate

The old Courthouse shot from in front of the Owl Club from west to east

This photo is shot from the same place but looking east to west

Looking east

We had a nice steak dinner that night. Then the next morning Lil Doc wants a burrito for breakfast, but there are no burritos on the menu. The waitress asks the cook George if he will make a burrito, but George is the only cook this week and with only four hours sleep he is not in a very good mood. So Lil Doc orders the stuff for her burrito and a flour tortilla and will make her own burrito.


George looking blurred and tired. :-)

After breakfast we hit the road. Today we will ride to Ely, NV and then leave Hwy 50 and head back to I-80 at Wendover, NV right on the Utah border.

At Ely we stop to look over the Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall. Then the ride along NV Hwy 93 and NV Hwy 93 Alt was the most boring road that I have ever ridden. It is worse than the road from Wendover to Salt Lake City, UT.

We gas up and have a Junior Whopper at the adjacent Burger King. After lunch we say our good byes and I head west and Lil Doc heads east.

This is Lil Doc's route for Wednesday:

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I was planning on making Winnemucca but the sun was in my eyes before Elko. So I decided to stop over at the Thunderbird Motel in Elko and walk to the Star Hotel for dinner. They only have Paella on Tuesdays. I have to be in Elko on a Tuesday, but today is Wednesday.
It is unbelievable how crowded the place was for a Wednesday night. So
while I was waiting for my table. I decided to walk down the street another block and take some pictures of the local red light district.



I left Elko this morning at 8:00 AM and got home around 4:30 PM riding I-80 and I-5. I would rather have taken different roads, but probably would have had to spend another night on the road. Since alternate routes would be both a lot longer and a lot slower.

~end for now

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